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Food Security a difficult issue to resolve

JEDDAH: The topic of food security took center stage at the Jeddah Economic Forum Monday afternoon. At the aggregate level it was agreed that there is enough food to feed the world, and that food insecurity at local levels is due to inadequate production and supply together with uneven access and distribution.

Speakers offered business solutions and opinions but eventually, in one of the set piece speeches, Turki Al-Rasheed set out the less well-received political aspects of food security.

Setting the scene for the web of issues surrounding food security, Intithar Hussein from the Islamic Development Bank outlined what the bank sees is a key area of concern - food security as a continuing world crisis, especially among IDB members.

"One in six human beings is suffering from food insecurity and under-nourishment," he told the conference. Climate change, and financial crises have deepened its effect leading to political and social crises. Hussein said that these people were largely in countries that depend on imports for their food needs, and fragile states where markets do not function and where the urban poor depend on cash for every aspect of their lives. This particularly applies to dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who spend more than half their income on food.

The last few years has seen poor people selling assets simply to survive and this, he said, has slowed already slow development. Although food prices have dropped from the 2008 peak, they are still higher than the pre-crises levels.

Increased cost of production, global food reserves, climatic variability and biofuel production have had serious effects on the supply side. Most importantly, under investment in agricultural infrastructure and strain on water resources has played a major role in the crisis.

"The conditions that caused the crisis remains," he said. There is a risk that they may trigger another unless adequate action is taken.

Hussein said that the agricultural industry offers great opportunities with new agricultural technology, expanding markets and enlightened policy that would lead to food security and profitable food businesses. However, food security needed integrated systems at the regional and local levels that were resistant to shock and took account of development in related areas of technology and markets.

Sami Baroum, MD of the Savola Group , led the delegates through the intricacies of the logistical relationships between food producers, traders and processors, emphasizing that the connection between all three areas in the agricultural industry is mutually beneficial.

"Logistics will become more critical as the volume of cross border volumes and urbanization increases," he said, noting that food security is not synonymous with national and local production, opening the door for the need of a more realistic view of the interdependence of nations in the production and supply of food. He contended that it is essential to establish broader international ties and adopt regional scale logistics to link global markets. Most of all, the food industry should use its particular skills to partner governments to manage strategic food reserves, the effects of seasonality, demand and deployment.

Yataka Kase, president and CEO of the Sojit Corporation, demonstrated that few countries are entirely self sufficient in food production and therefore total food security. He noted Japan produced only 40 percent of its requirements, the UK about 75 percent and the US and France between 120 and 130 percent. He concurred that food distribution systems needed improvement and that governments should stockpile grain reserves and improve self-sufficiency where possible.

It was Al-Rasheed, chairman of Golden Grass , who made the telling point that food scarcity could be seen as "the political aspect of agricultural development. Agriculture is one of the most effective tools to promote growth and alleviate poverty."

Inevitably, as food is a commodity, albeit one that is essential to life, supply or withdrawal takes on a political aspect when scaled up. He gave one example of the neglect of agricultural development - he said that in 1980, 25 percent of loans from the IDB were for agricultural development.

"In 2000 - would anybody like to take a guess? It was 10 percent."

He noted that "food security may emerge as one of the key issues of the 21st century." He followed this by saying that water scarcity in Saudi Arabia was one of the limiting factors of food production. In 2007, water consumption was 23 billion cubic meters of which 87.5 percent was used for agriculture. The world average was 71 percent.

He said that to legislate to stop wheat production for farmers who had invested many millions of riyals in their water and farm equipment and require that they stop growing wheat and cause farmers to grow alfalfa and summer crops that use anything up to 16 times more water is easy. The process, however, produces some unfortunate results.

Referring to government bureaucrats who could prevent farmers growing at the stroke of a pen, he said: "You decided to make the surgery but you don't want to pay the price after the surgery."

The JEF enters its last day Tuesday with sessions on health, science and technology and education.

By ROGER HARRISON

© Arab News 2010